The latest is that I now want to do Proper Dual-booting on this machine. Using Windows computer Management to shrink the partitions, I was astonished to find that two partitions appear to have gone, as in the attachment at the end of the post.

So I'm curious as to where the attachments have "Gone". My guess is that the other two (mentioned in first thread) were residuals or something, left for reverting to a previous windows OS, programmed to be removed after a certain length of time. Certainly it seems typical of Windows just to remove entire partitions without the owner's awareneness or permision. Or is this just bias or a flight of fancy?

Any comments welcome.
Also any more tips on "Proper" Dual Booting Ubiuntu with Win-7 as opposed to using Wubi (which is just really meant to be a testing OS, nice though it is)

Re: Have Two Partitions Disappeared?

I'm sorry to start the post in this manner but it's utter nonsense Windows' typical behaviour is just to delete entire partitions without the users consent.
You my find that if you split the "unallocated space" and try to leave the file system blank (ie leave it unformatted) it'll extend the partitions automatically so as to create one partition. (indeed typical behaviour)
A way around this is to format the partitions to NTFS, boot Ubuntu and then format them to whatever you want at install time.
Also note that only 3-4 (not 100% sure) partitions can be created.

My advice would be to create an extended partition which works around that issue; with that 250GB partition (so it goes green) then split it into 2, one for OS (/) one for user data (/home)
Install ubuntu as normal.

I'll upload a screenshot of my diskmgmt.msc in a while as it's pretty much what you're looking for.

Re: Have Two Partitions Disappeared?

OK, here's my diskmgmt.msc

A little explanation:

We're interested in the 1st HDD. As you see, it's been split several times.
Pre-Ubuntu I started by splitting the drive into 2: Windows & User_Data.
I then shrunk the Windows partition 30GB which left me with an extended partition (note the green). I then shrunk the 30GB ex. partition 20GB to leave me with 10GB for the OS, another 5GB for user data and another partition for testing. All partitions were initially formatted to NTFS (as otherwise it'll re-extend as noted previously)

Now, you may be looking at mine thinking why only the 15GB partition is extended. Well, the truth is, it's not. The 3 partitions in the middle (10GB 5GB & 15GB) are all part on one extended partition. I think becuse the first 2 are formatted an EXT4 Windows now has a spaz recognising what they are and only displays the 3rd as extended.

Re: Have Two Partitions Disappeared?

Originally Posted by Mr Stoozer

OK, here's my diskmgmt.msc

A little explanation:

We're interested in the 1st HDD. As you see, it's been split several times.
Pre-Ubuntu I started by splitting the drive into 2: Windows & User_Data.
I then shrunk the Windows partition 30GB which left me with an extended partition (note the green). I then shrunk the 30GB ex. partition 20GB to leave me with 10GB for the OS, another 5GB for user data and another partition for testing. All partitions were initially formatted to NTFS (as otherwise it'll re-extend as noted previously)

Now, you may be looking at mine thinking why only the 15GB partition is extended. Well, the truth is, it's not. The 3 partitions in the middle (10GB 5GB & 15GB) are all part on one extended partition. I think becuse the first 2 are formatted an EXT4 Windows now has a spaz recognising what they are and only displays the 3rd as extended.

P.S Have a Windows startup disk handy as if you knock out the bootloader and have issues during Ubuntu's installation, you'll have no Boot manager.
command to fix the Windows bootmanager if needed:

Code:

bootrec /fixmbr

if that fails

Code:

bootrec /fixboot

Thanks - I'm studying your two posts.
This machine doesn't have a floppy but it does have an external cd drive you can boot from. Can I make a boot disk on cd? It must be so - I'll google this to investigate.

Re: Have Two Partitions Disappeared?

Be careful creating additional partitions in windows. It does not see Linux partitions even though they are there. It may also convert to a logical volume SFS or Dynamic partitioning scheme which is compatible with nothing. Use windows tools for Windows & Linux tools for Linux.

The Ubuntu install CD is also a liveCD which you can & should run to test your system to make sure it works. It then can be used for repairs. Always have a working liveCD/liveUSB for every system you install. I like to have several as sometimes one works better than another for certain repairs.

Depending on how much memory you have you may not absolutely need swap but having some is still recommended. I do not hibernate (boots fast enough for me) but if hibernating then you need swap equal to RAM. And if dual booting with windows a shared NTFS partition is also recommended. But you usually cannot create that as part of the install, just leave some space. Or partition in advance (recommended).
One advantage of partitioning in advance is that the installer will use the swap space to speed up the install. Thanks Herman for the tip.

Re: Have Two Partitions Disappeared?

Originally Posted by Andavane

Thanks - I'm studying your two posts.
This machine doesn't have a floppy but it does have an external cd drive you can boot from. Can I make a boot disk on cd? It must be so - I'll google this to investigate.

Sure you can make a boot CD, do it for both OS'.
If your PC supports booting from USB (and you have a spare 4GB laying around), that's the easiest option. If not, in Windows, install EasyBCD and force it to.

Re: Have Two Partitions Disappeared?

Originally Posted by oldfred

Be careful creating additional partitions in windows. It does not see Linux partitions even though they are there. It may also convert to a logical volume SFS or Dynamic partitioning scheme which is compatible with nothing. Use windows tools for Windows & Linux tools for Linux.

The Ubuntu install CD is also a liveCD which you can & should run to test your system to make sure it works. It then can be used for repairs. Always have a working liveCD/liveUSB for every system you install. I like to have several as sometimes one works better than another for certain repairs.

Depending on how much memory you have you may not absolutely need swap but having some is still recommended. I do not hibernate (boots fast enough for me) but if hibernating then you need swap equal to RAM. And if dual booting with windows a shared NTFS partition is also recommended. But you usually cannot create that as part of the install, just leave some space. Or partition in advance (recommended).
One advantage of partitioning in advance is that the installer will use the swap space to speed up the install. Thanks Herman for the tip.

...Many of above are duplicates presented in slightly different ways, one may make more sense or after reviewing one the other may make more sense.

Thanks. Had another good read. Little by little the partitioning lingo sinks/synchs in. One ideally would need two screens, I feel, one with the tutorial, one with the GParted Tutorial.

Anyway, it's all up-and-running nicely now (screenshot attached).

It turned out that there *was* another partition when I acquired the machine, a Vista bootloader that came with the machine. This made three partitions, one left for Ubuntu and I had nothing for the swap area. Hence my initial difficulties.